Today was Career Day at my daughter's middle school. She and her friend noticed that no one was visiting the cosmetology booth, and she felt badly for the girls who were there giving up their time to present it as a career choice. So she and Friend went over and talked to them.

In return she was given a very cute hair scrunchie (all of the career representatives bring little trinkety items with them to give to the students) which her classmates envied.

It's nice when being kind has a reinforcing payback right away.

And I'm going to remember it when she says something snarky at home later.

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freakyfemme

Aww, your daughter and her friend sound like very nice girls. Also, where is this career day? I love getting free stuff.....let's see, I could go to the Cosmetology booth for hair elastics, the Candy Store Owner booth for free candy. I wonder what the Automotive booth gives out, lol.

Very thoughtful indeed! And nicely rewarded as well. It never hurts to check out all sorts of careers. Chip never in the world thought he would end up as an accountant, and now he can't imagine not working with numbers and systems.

I used to do Career Days for high schools when I was in newspaper. Almost every kid who came to my booth said, "Do you have to work weekends?" Uh, yes, sometimes. "Ewwww!" Walk away.

Then there was the slightly scary kid who said, "I want to be a movie critic. I like bombs." (I was tempted to point him toward the Army recruiter nearby, but I kept my mouth shut. As I said — scary kid.)

Hey, I'll take that free root canal. I have to pay $600 each and that's only because the dentist charges half price for medicaid patients (root canals are not covered). And that doesn't include the crowns.

One presenter made it a point to talk about "trash" jobs. My daughter said it was awful for the kids whose parents HAD those jobs.

Exactly what would be a "trash job" anyway? Other than ones that are immoral or illegal, I'm not sure I can think of a job that's not worthy of respect. I very much appreciate the lady who empties my garbage can at work each evening. I respect the person who does sewer work (otherwise, I'd have to be doing it myself). A good hair stylist is worth his or her weight in gold. Without the factory workers who do the tedious, monotonous jobs, we wouldn't have the things we have. Is there a job that's not "acceptable" in some way?

I wouldn't like to work a lot of the jobs out there, because they're just not for me. But, I'm extremely glad someone is. And, I respect them for doing it.

It is a little silly in that a lot of careers will be available in 8 years (when they graduate from college) or even 4 (from high school) that are not even thought of now--

One presenter made it a point to talk about "trash" jobs. My daughter said it was awful for the kids whose parents HAD those jobs.

She said her advisory (homeroom) teacher was on the warpath to get that presenter removed. It is one thing to encourage kids to aim high, another to put down career choices.

I don't think it is silly. The idea is to emphasize they need to stay in school. Many kids don't see a purpose for education - especially if the adults in their lives work minimum wage jobs.

Absolutely, a lot of kids don't see the purpose of staying in school, but not all of the presenters were educated themselves enough to present that--One engineer told students that there were no jobs in video games (designing them.) Which was funny since one of DH's former colleagues has a very comfortable living managing a division of Lucasfilms video games company. He has his master's in business and a computer related undergrad.

Most of the "trash" jobs the presenter spoke of don't pay minimum wage, either. A lot of the kids I teach lack a vision for the future but calling the jobs their parents have "trash jobs" (my daughter a lot of students were obviously uncomfortable) doesn't give them a vision, it just reinforces stereotypes...

The purpose of having Career Day is to show kids different careers objectively and allow them to make their own, better informed decisions.

To slam a career as "trash" is wrong. Of course some careers pay better than others, but honest labour is never trash.

So show the kids the different careers and their lifestyle. You can't be an emergency surgeon and not be 24hrs on call. Few low education jobs pay well. Hopefully, that will convince them to study hard and to find lifestyle solutions for them.